Will home advantage at Euro 2016 help or hinder France?

Will Les Bleus cope with the weight of expectations?

France
France © GEPA pictures

Didier Deschamps has been here before. The forty-seven year-old famously lifted the Jules Rimet trophy in 1998 as France captain, with Les Bleus unifying a nation by triumphing as host nation at the World Cup. Wind the clock forward eighteen years and Deschamps is now manager of the French senior team, with the former Monaco, Juventus and Marseille coach responsible for selecting a winning team as Les Bleus once again host a major tournament.

Many will point to the fact that France can benefit from home nation status and another article on this website alludes to the fact that the Group A winners will benefit from a more favourable draw than some of the other top teams.

However, one only needs to look back two years to the 2014 World Cup to see the way that Brazil buckled under pressure from an expectant nation. The Selecao were fortunate to wind up at the semi-final stage before being humiliated by Germany.

The previous two European Championships have been held by countries that have not been expected to go particularly far, while the same applies to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa although Germany’s failure to win the same tournament in 2006 illustrates that home advantage is not a banker.

In 1998, everything came together for that French team and the good news is that the new Bleus team reached the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Cup without being the finished article.

Since narrowly losing to eventual winners Germany, there have been plenty of emerging talents and the likes of Anthony Martial, Kingsley Coman, Dimitri Payet and N’Golo Kante will be selected and ready to strut their stuff.

However, representing France carries a deep significance and that’s especially the case since the terrorist atrocities in Paris that stunned not only a nation but the world at large.

That fateful night of 13 November 2015 will live long in the memory, with a French win against Germany taking place before an attack on the Republic’s capital that left Paris in a state of shock.

Deschamps will try to distance the team from playing too emotionally-charged at Euro 2016, something that would be dangerous and it’s also important to acknowledge that any kind of victory this summer for France would not make amends for the tragic loss of life last autumn.

However, at a time where tensions are rising between the various ethnic and religious groups within the host nation at Euro 2016, then the football team can once again bind the country together and make a stand of solidarity.

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Optimism has been high that France can fare well in this tournament, with results taking a turn for the better since the start of 2015. Indeed, the team seem united and a decision to keep Karim Benzema out of proceedings has probably been the right thing to do.

There was mutiny at the 2010 World Cup under Raymond Domenech although Deschamps is the calm man to steer the team through choppy waters and they should be a major player at the European Championship.